by Volecia Plafcan

Created on: July 23, 2009

Although, I lived in the South for many years, racism had no place in my heart or mind. We did not grow up hating black or white people.

I believed the biggest portion of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream has been fulfilled and in that he was a man of God, I believe God played the biggest part in seeing that all men were created equal - that the master is no bigger than his servant and the servant is no bigger than his master. Dr. King knew that but, I disagreed when he referred to the Black race as his people. They are our people, too, in that they are Americans.

Do not the Blacks realize that their ancestors, when they were brought to America as slaves, were their stepping stone to becoming American citizens? That Barack Obama was destined to be president one day?

Sure, there was a big showdown and the National Guard had to be summoned when the first black children were admitted to the high school in Little Rock. There was disturbance when James Merideth was admitted to Ole Miss, however, the whole nation didn't know that the front page headlines of one of the Jackson newspapers read the next morning "AND THE GOVERNOR SLEPT" meaning that when James entered Ole Miss, the governor of Mississippi was asleep. Now, does that sound like Mississippi cared whether or not James Meredith enrolled in Ole Miss? James Meredith was the first black admitted there.

There are an awful lot of sharpshooters in Mississippi because people down there like to hunt. If someone had wanted to shoot James, they wouldn't have waited 'til just a few years ago when he was running and someone took a random potshot at him.

There were marches, there were Freedom Riders, there was Dr. King, and poor Medgar Evers, a civil rights leader who was shot down in the driveway of his home. He was only thirty-seven. His killer was brought to justice after thirty years where he died in prison. There was Rosa Parks and her bus seat. I'm white but, if I had been black, I wouldn't have given my seat up to any man - black or white.

I really don't think the marches were necessary. From Canton, MS to Jackson, is approximately thirty miles. Most of the time, it is hot and humid there. Some of these people could have died as well on the march from Selma, AL. Of course, these people were walking for their rights but, who was doing their jobs for them while they were out marching?

The murders of the three civil rights workers in Mississippi was a horrible thing but, it wasn't the state of Mississippi that murdered them.

Dr. King is revered and idolized by many, many people, including myself. President Obama, I think, will serve his term without disappointing the people of the United States.

There has already been a change in my over a century of being here on earth. From the days of blacks coming to the back door, having separate drinking fountains, separate schools and churches, riding in the back of the bus, not being served in restaurants (I never saw that happen for we were too poor to eat out) so I firmly believe the major portion of Dr. King's dream has been fulfiled. However, I do believe that all that drama was unnecessary.

I have worked in the fields with black people, in offices with black people, had lunch with them, worshipped in church with them, and have even loved some of them like sisters and that is fine with me - just don't start messin' with my Christianity and my God because I will stand firm on that.

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